So says the Wall Street Journal anyway:
Judge Mukasey has written op-ed articles for The Wall Street Journal defending the Patriot Act and describing the limitations of existing legal institutions and statutes to handle terrorist cases. On the latter, Judge Mukasey wrote that shaping an adjudicatory framework suitable for handling this special class of terror defendants is Congress’s job. Congress, he said, needs to “fix a strained and mismatched legal system before another cataclysm calls forth from the people demands for hastier and harsher results.”
If there is reason at all for concern in the Mukasey nomination, it would be that the level of seriousness he has brought to bear on these problems, from the bench and in his writings, has become largely alien to life in official Washington. Thus we wonder whether Judge Mukasey realizes how poisonous Washington has become and whether he has the hide to survive it.
Inside the Administration, he can probably resist those at the State Department who want to close Guantanamo, largely because they haven’t offered a credible alternative. The bigger test will be the Democratic demand for a special counsel to investigate the U.S. attorney firings. He’ll have to resist this assault on executive authority, even at the risk of not being confirmed.
